


Oh flippers

by KitkatAndCocoa



Category: Unidentified Fandom
Genre: F/F, F/M, Highschool Setting, M/M, Sunny is a mermaid, Trey and Luke are assholes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:21:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25268287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitkatAndCocoa/pseuds/KitkatAndCocoa
Summary: Sunny wishes her mother would come back from the ocean.Her father is no help.And there's this cute boy at school...
Relationships: Sunny/Daniel





	Oh flippers

High school. The best, and worst place to be. For Sunny, it was even worse. Pretending you have no spine, acting like you have zero strength and hate socializing. Oh, and I forgot. Hiding the fact that you’re a mermaid. That too. 

There’s this cute guy. Yeah I know. About 5’6’’, hot, athletic, and strangely a big softy. He seems a bit spacy when it comes to the bullying, but Sunny has a feeling his “friends” keep that side of the group from him. 

Sunny yawned, using her hand to finger comb her hair back and out of her face. Her long blonde hair was wavy, and did nothing she wanted. It was just everywhere. Spray couldn’t tame it, and she sure as hell couldn’t either. At least it went with her name. Except her eyes. They were brown. Just boring old brown. She took a sip from her water bottle, the metal having several dents from being pushed over by Luke, or slammed into the wall. Sunny was lucky she hadn’t smashed the wall completely by accident. Because her strength was too much. Not normal. A label Sunny desperately tried to hide. Her mother had disappeared into the ocean, flapping that gorgeous fin and leaving Sunny to try and man the house, and add on the fact that her father was NO help whatsoever. 

“Hey Sunny! Not looking so bright today!” Luke called, trailing behind her as she made her way down the hallway. When did he get here? Does he just materialize to bother her fifteen minutes every day!?

Daniel came around the corner, listening to his friends talk about video games. He glanced over and saw Sunny, smiling at her. Though he did that to everyone he saw, so that made it mostly worthless to her. “Hey, Luke, you gonna need a ride to the match tonight?” he called to Luke, who was about to insult Sunny again.

“Like you need to ask, my parents took my car keys again cause I forgot a few pieces of homework,” Luke rolled his eyes. “See ya.”

“No problem,” Daniel said as his group went down the hall, passing them. His smile started to fade as his friends started to downtalk Luke’s girlfriend just out of his range of hearing. He said he needed to get to class and turned to go to his art class.

“Hey fish girl!” Cori called from back down the hallway, bounding up to Sunny and practically tackling the grumpy, tired girl. “You ready?”   
“ _ So  _ ready.” Sunny huffed, rolling her eyes. “Oh, and quit it with the fish stuff. What if someone hears?” Thankfully, most teenagers in the high school had earbuds in, walking with their eyes glued to their phones, or talking loudly in thick groups. 

“Oops.” Cori shrugged, and Sunny knew she wouldn’t stop, she would just stop for a little bit. “So, are you heading to homeroom today, or going to the pool?” Sunny made a face,   
“Homeroom. Unfortunately.” 

“Oh darn, Sunny has to do regular stuff for once.” Cori snorted, jabbing at Sunny, who just shook her head. They arrived at Sunny’s class, and Cori split off and went to her own, which was next door. Sunny took a seat in the back and put her head down, sighing. 

Daniel finished up some homework he had been too busy to do earlier, wondering why Trey and Harold had to be so mean about other people. He didn’t know that in their homeroom, they were mocking him for being such a goody-two shoes. And of course, for some reason, Sunny was the top choice of who to literally shove to the ground, or into the wall, because she had that air of authority, as if she could act if she wanted to, and that seemed to just piss all the jocks off. Sunny groaned, covering her head and trying to fall asleep. A book slammed onto her desk surface, and she shot up, ready to rip someone’s head off. 

“Hey bich. Sleepin’ already?” Trey sneered, Luke loitering behind. Sunny was pretty sure they didn’t have the same class as her. But who knew, they were troublemakers anyway. “Were you too busy screwing the teachers to get some sleep last night?”

Sunny wanted to tell them to piss off, but instead she just shook her head. “Nope, never done that.” Of course, that angered them. She was too calm, and it enraged the two guys. 

“After class, we’re going to show you just how much you should be afraid.” Trey spat, and walked out fuming with Luke in tow. 

Daniel finished his homework just in time for homeroom to end, and got up to go to his next class, Algebra 2. He saw Luke and Trey walking behind Sunny, and wondered why Luke always seemed to be by her if he liked her. Why didn’t he just tell her? Stalking her was just so stupid and cruel. He bumped into a girl. “Oh, sorry,” he said quickly, seeing if she had dropped anything so he might help. He wanted to make up for what he’d done. Meanwhile, Sunny went around the corner and out of sight, and as soon as she got to the empty hallway she was slammed at full force into the ground, Her backpack was heavy enough, so it didn’t help anything.    
“Get up.” Trey snapped, tearing her bag from her shoulders and throwing it aside. Luke walked over and grabbed her arm, yanking her up. Sunny stumbled, not trying to defend herself. That would just make things worse for her. Daniel came into the hallway as well, not noticing the bullying because he was being distracted by someone flirting with him. He looked visibly uncomfortable, but she didn’t seem to get the hint. 

“Come on babe, you don’t have to hide your feelings-” She suddenly grabbed fistfulls of his shirt and yanked him forward, pressing her glossy lips to his. 

The hallway went quiet, a few passing groups gaping. However, Sunny was staring with a blank expression, standing up with the help of the wall behind her. Daniel pulled himself away. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t-” he said, flushing. “I’m sorry.” He took a few steps backwards, quickly ducking around the corner and leaving. He quickly dashed into Algebra, breathing a little heavily. Why the heck did she do that? Why didn’t she get the hint? Daniel went into the bathroom and washed his face up, feeling wrong. He’d never shown interest in anyone, and until now no one had acted so aggressively towards him to show their feelings. He knew some people that liked him, but he had talked them down. He didn’t like letting them down, but he didn’t want to enter a one-sided relationship like that, unlike some of the athletes.

Meanwhile, Trey burst out laughing at the woman, who huffed and jangled her jewelry. “Humph, he’ll come around.”

Luke snorted, then looked over at Sunny, who’s eyes looked a bit intense. Her entire body was stiff, and her jaw was clenched tightly. “Hey, the hell is wrong with you bi-” He didn’t have a chance to say anything more, because Sunny’s fist connected with his face, sending him flying backwards and skidding on his *ss down the hallway. People whistled and ‘Ooohed’, having never seen him be beat before. Trey shot a furious glare at Sunny, but looked a bit nervous. A punch like that shouldn’t send someone across the entire hallway.    
“What the f**k was that!?” But he paused when Sunny picked up her backpack and turned to him, looking ready to beat him up too. 

“Uhh..nevermind..” Trey muttered, and watched Sunny storm by, passing Luke, who was groaning on the floor. 

“You just got decked by a little girl, wimp,” he said, prodding at Luke after making sure Sunny wasn’t in earshot.

“Did she take steroids or something?” Luke groaned as he climbed to his feet. He went to the nurse’s office for his dripping nose, ignoring everyone’s laughter.

Sunny plopped into her History class, and steamed there for a while. Cori walked in, and sat down, giving Sunny a raised brow.    
“Uh, did I miss something?” She spoke carefully. 

Daniel heard stories about a girl named Sunny decking Luke. He frowned a little. What had she punched him for? He knew he wasn’t going to get the whole story from Luke, so he might try to find her sometime and ask her about it. Then maybe they could work things out, leave each other alone. But he knew nothing about Sunny’s appearance other than a short girl with platinum blonde hair, so it was going to be a little difficult. Didn’t want to bother someone asking every girl with platinum blonde hair. After explaining everything, Cori laughed. A lot. “Holy crap. You destroyed him because of your jealousy? Damn!” Cori wheezed. Sunny was less amused. She was still sore. Why was she even mad? He wasn’t her boyfriend. 

Daniel struggled with Algebra, he’d be the first one to admit that. But luckily his teammates were smart, so he could rely on them while his brain tried to figure out what had ticked God off enough to make Algebra a thing. He let out a little sigh of relief once the bell rang, packing up his stuff and going to his next class. He glanced around, making sure to keep an eye out for anyone who might have been the ‘Sunny’ he had heard about, and the girl who had kissed him.

It filtered around the school fairly quick about Sunny’s little outburst, but soon enough she was distracted from the situation by Cori plopping down at the lunch table and saying,    
“We have the start of the swim unit today.”

It was like a record scratch. 

Sunny looked over at Cori, eyes wide.    
“What did you say?”   
Cori sighed,    
“I saaaaaid, we have the swi-”

“SHHH don’t say it again!” Sunny groaned, forgetting about the fight and immediately being filled with dread. “Oh god what do I do? If I swallow or breathe in any water,  _ any at all,  _ I’ll change, and BOOM tail. I can’t skip, dad would have a panic attack!”

Daniel was skipping lunch, having heard that the girl he had been kissed by was questioning his friends about where he was. Apparently she had decided to not just wait for him to come around. He was a little excited for the end of lunch, both because the girl couldn’t skip every class looking for him hopefully, and the swimming unit in gym. He liked swimming a lot, people joked he should have joined the swim team, but he much preferred track and field. So he mostly sat in a bathroom stall, scrolling through social media and checking up on his friends, who were mostly joking about how the girl was looking for him.

Both Trey and Luke knew that Sunny hated swimming around other people. Or at least that was what they thought. From what they had seen, Sunny only swam alone, or at least from rumors, and Cori guarded the rest of the information completely. Luke and Trey hated Cori, but she was too slippery to bully. 

Sunny pulled on her swimsuit, a black and red one piece that she prefered to be simple. She didn’t like flashy designs. Her mermaid tail was usually enough. But for this class, she had to make sure she didn’t get in the water. She couldn’t. No way. 

“Everyone hurry up!” The old lady screeched. 

Daniel had been sitting on the bleachers in the pool waiting for everyone else to come out for a while. He didn’t really feel like screwing around with the other guys right now. The other students all started coming out, and Daniel saw Sunny. But of course he wasn’t sure if she was actually Sunny. She just had the hair and the height. He wasn’t going to potentially upset her by asking for her name. He could just wait for the role call. Cori sat down next to Sunny, and joked that it would be a huge reveal if Sunny inhaled water, which got her a playful slap in return. 

The teacher cleared her throat, and started barking out names. “John?”

“Here!”

“Terry?”

“Here!”

And on, until,    
“Sunny?”

“H-here.” Sunny cursed herself for stuttering, but breathed in deeply, trying to steel herself. She saw Daniel look over at her, his expression looking like he was thinking about something. Then she remembered the fight, and that she had seen Luke and Daniel hanging out before. Sunny ducked her head, forcing away the automatic flushing her cheeks were colored with. Cori chuckled, then froze as the teacher snapped,    
“Hey! Shut up.”

And continued the role call. 

Daniel looked at the water until his name was called. “Here!” he said, continuing to wonder how he would bring it up. He couldn’t just walk up to her and ask ‘Hey, why did you hit Luke?’, he had to wait so he wouldn’t upset her. She sounded violent, and he didn’t want to cause any violence by upsetting her.

Of course, that was the least of Sunny’s problems, since the thoughts of Daniel looking at her were swept from her brain as the teacher started explaining the lap swimming.    
“Everyone up, follow me. Don’t get in yet!” She snapped. Cori jumped up, but Sunny trailed after her reluctantly. Because of the students shoving their ways to certain spots, Sunny ended up right next to the edge, and she could feel her fish heart pounding. This wasn’t helped by the fact that Daniel was right next to her, one of the few people actually paying attention. Then Sunny heard movement behind her, and Luke’s voice came from there. 

“Have fun,” he said with a smile as he slammed her into the water, laughing a little as the splash came up. Everyone turned to look at the movement.

“Who just jumped in the water!?” the teacher exclaimed angrily.

“Sunny, Ms. Toona,” Luke said solemnly.

Cori gasped, looking pale as she yanked Sunny out of the water. Sunny shook herself, then breathed in, having plugged her nose just in time. She shivered, looking miserable. 

“Sunny!” Ms. Toona exclaimed, storming over. “Maybe if you’re so eager to get into the water, you can just sit today out,” she pointed to the bleachers. People started snickering, and Daniel looked confused. He had been right next to Sunny, and he hadn’t noticed her jumping in. 

“Are you okay?” he asked Sunny as she started going to the bleachers. Maybe she had slipped or something. However, everyone but Cori had missed the look of relief at  _ not  _ swimming on Sunny’s face.    
“I-I’m fine, have fun.” She said hurriedly, and moved away from him like he was the plague. Daniel blinked, watching her move away confusedly. Had he done something to her? He tried to think of if he had done anything to her, but he couldn’t think of the thing he had done.

Class continued, and Trey and Luke laughed and snickered together the entire time. “What’s so funny?” Daniel asked as he swam past them quickly. They just laughed it off, “It’s nothing!” they called to him, looking over at Sunny, who was watching Daniel with interest. Cori caught her gaze and wiggled her eyebrows, but Sunny just rolled her eyes back.

Sunny remembered her mother’s words a year ago,  _ “It doesn’t matter if it’s salt, fresh, or chlorine, never, ever, ever inhale any of the water from the pool, or you will turn into a mermaid.” _

It was tiring resisting the change, knowing she could just breathe underwater, similar to a person on land holding their breath when they can just inhale normally. That’s why she took some time when no one was looking, and the lifeguard goes on his phone or with his girlfriend, to change into her mermaid form. It was okay for mer-people to swim, but breathing water for more than a few seconds triggers the “mermaid switch”, and then it’s tail city. And breathing air does the reverse, changing the scales to skin again. Don’t get her wrong, Sunny’s tail was very pretty, ruby red, white, black, and orange scales in a Koi Fish pattern, but the Mer Code was not to be taken lightly. When Sunny’s mom had married her dad, they had to meet with a couple Mer people to officiate it, since Sunny’s dad was human. 

Daniel followed their gaze to Sunny, and his eyes widened slightly as he noticed she was watching him. “Hello,” he waved to her as he continued down the pool. Sunny looked a bit startled, and blushed a little, looking away. She weakly waved, but didn’t meet his eyes. He swam over to the edge of the pool, resting on it to regain his breath a little. “Did I do something wrong? I’m sorry if I did,” he said.    
“W-what? Oh, no you didn’t.” Sunny was now flustered, and didn’t know why he was even talking to her. She  _ had  _ been staring. Oops. 

“Oh, okay. Sorry for bothering you, I was just wondering since it seems like you don’t tolerate my presence well,” Daniel chuckled a little. “Anyways, while I’m here, I heard you punched Luke and knocked him over.” He had actually heard that he had been thrown across the hall, but that was probably just rumors exaggerating what had happened. “May I know why?” Sunny gaped like a fish, then pulled herself together.    
“Y-yeah. I punched him. He was being an *ss. That’s all. Sorry.” She added the apology just for good measure. He was Daniel’s friend after all. 

“It’s okay, I know how he can be sometimes. I just don’t like violence, so I wanted to make sure you weren’t some jerk going around punching everyone for no reason,” he joked. The teacher blew a whistle, and he flinched from it. “Anyways, sorry you can’t swim, you seem like a fairly nice person.” He kicked off of the wall and went back to swimming laps.

Sunny was...appalled by the conversation, to say the least. He had thought of her as violent? Of course, it made sense, because he never noticed her existence until now when she punched someone who was his friend. But really? Great first impression Sunny.  _ Wonderful _ job. 

“Oh, whatcha talking to blonde bich for?” Luke asked. “You got a crush on her, lover boy? I was starting to worry that you were a f****t.”

Daniel winced a little. “There’s not really a need to be that cruel. Just wanting to get her side of the story and know why she beat you up,” he said, knowing that poking at Luke’s wounded pride would get him to stop and just let them all swim in peace. It worked, Luke wrinkled his nose and distaste and swam away, mumbling into the water about something. Daniel felt a little relieved at his leaving, then crushed that feeling. It was mean to be glad someone was leaving. Luke was a decent person, he shouldn’t hate him like that. As class ended, Cori went straight up to Sunny, laughing.    
“Oh my gahd, he just goes straight up to you and asks you why you punched Luke!? Your face was so red-”

Sunny hissed, “Shut. Up.”

Daniel was changing in the locker room with the other guys, wondering slightly why all of the guys had to be taller than him. If he were just a couple inches taller, he’d be about average and it wouldn’t feel like walking into a fresh forest where all the trees were aggressive and insulting every time he changed. He managed to talk down a fight between two guys for as dumb of a reason as one of them saw him naked. I mean, come on. They were changing. It’s not that big of a deal. He left the locker room a few minutes later, short brown hair messed up from his towel and not feeling like fixing it.

The rest of the day was going on without much eventful drama or activity, and by the time the bell rang, Sunny made a beeline for the pool. Cori called goodbye to her, and Sunny disappeared into the pool office. Gared, a senior who was a total player, was always out with a girl when he should be working, and Sunny didn’t tell on him, since she could have the pool completely to herself. No one really came to the pool after school anyway. 

“Hey babe, swimming again?” Gerad swooned fakely, looking at his phone. Sunny rolled her eyes, “Yeah, you going out again?”   
“You know it babe.

“Well hurry up and go.”

“Yes ma’am~” Gared chuckled, leaving the keys in Sunny’s hands and walking out. 

Little did Sunny know, she was being followed by Trey, with a school camera. He was going to try and embarrass her with photos, and if he caught something good, well he could always use that.

Sunny left the office, and walked into the main pool area, setting the keys on the bleachers. Then she pulled her shirt and pants off, revealing the swimsuit she had worn to gym. She had never taken it off. For mer people, it was weird wearing swimsuits, but Sunny was okay with it. 

Trey took a picture of her taking her clothes off, not planning on letting anyone other than him see that photo. He collected photos like that. He snuck towards a dark corner by the bleachers, camera ready. Sunny stretched her arms a little, then started walking to the diving board. Trey peered towards her. The diving board always gave the best photos. He raised his camera and moved a little out so he could get a better view. Sunny climbed up the ladder and halted at the very end part of the board, not even close to the water side yet. Then she took off in a full sprint, and jumped so hard on the end that the board looked like it might snap in half. She curled her body and did a flip, diving into the water cleanly. Trey took a few photos, and then let out a strangled gasp as he saw what happened to Sunny. He kept taking photos, though. Daniel wouldn’t believe this without photos. This would stop him from interacting with that bich.

Sunny swam through the water fluidly, her glistening ruby colored tail thrusting her again and again forward, her arms at her sides as her hair flowed out behind her. She did some laps of sorts, resting here and there, but mostly just going into the extreme deep end. This made it harder for Trey to take the photos. This didn’t make him happy, since they looked blurry, but they would have to do. He wasn’t going to let Sunny see him risking to take better pictures. He silently fled from the area, the door clicking quietly into place, muffled by the water so that Sunny couldn’t hear as he ran to the track field, where Daniel was warming up.

Sunny continued to swim, but got done about fifteen minutes later, pulling herself out of the water and draining the water from her lungs. Then she breathed in the air, and felt her legs return. 

Trey ran up to Daniel, who was taking a small break to drink some water. “Dude, dude, you’re not gonna believe what I saw!” he said, taking the camera and shoving it into Daniel’s face.

“Chill, Trey,” he protested, taking the camera. “Why the heck did you just take a bunch of blurry pictures of Sunny swimming?” he asked, a bit of disgust in his voice. 

“ _ She has a tail _ !” Trey hissed, pointing at an even blurrier part of the photo. Daniel rolled his eyes.

“I can’t see anything with this. And I highly doubt you asked for permission to do this. This is not okay. Just get rid of the photos, okay?”

Trey sputtered a little. “But-”

“I don’t really care. She obviously had no idea you were taking these photos. Stop being a creep.” Daniel shook his head and went back to jogging laps, leaving Trey frustrated at the gate to the field. 

Sunny dried off and went home, locking up the pool and office for Gared. Then she greeted her nervous dad, who was desperately trying to fix the sink.    
“Dad? Just call a plumber.”

“Nah, I can do it. I’m a mechanic.”

“A quantum mechanic, not a sink mechanic.”

“Eh.”

“Dad. Seriously.”

Daniel wondered what was up with Trey as he finished up practice, covered in sweat. Was he just pissed at Sunny for punching Luke? He probably deserved it. He dropped Luke off at his house before he drove back to his own. “I’m home, Mom,” he said. “And before you tell me to, yes, I’m going to take a shower now.” He started up the stairs.

“Good, you’re learning something from me, at least,” his mom chuckled as she heated up dinner for Daniel, since he had missed it. Daniel climbed into the shower and let the warm drops wash his sweat away as he thought about what he was going to do about Sunny, Luke, Trey, and that girl who had kissed him.

The next day, Sunny had to walk to school, since her dad had a meeting, and on the way Cori picked her up in her mom’s car. It was a little chilly, the wind picking up more than usual.    
“Signs of fall, I’m telling you.” Cori’s mom whined, “It’s coming whether we like it or not.”

“Goodbye mom.” Cori rolled her eyes, exiting the car with Sunny. 

Daniel was waiting in the airlock, perking up as he saw Sunny. “Hi, Sunny. I need to talk to you about something,” he said, getting up from the wall. However, his mission was interrupted. Cori put her arm around Sunny and led her to the door that led inside,    
“Sorry, busy, maybe later!” Sunny just looked overwhelmed, letting Cori lead her away. “Don’t worry Sunny, I’ll protect you from the jocks.”    
“Cori oh my gosh.”

Daniel frowned as he watched them go. He just wanted to tell her about what Trey had done. He sighed. “How am I going to do this?” he muttered as he went back to his table, hearing Trey and Luke joking and laughing about something. For some reason they just stopped when he came near. “What’s so funny?” he asked as he sat down.

“Nothin’ much,” Luke shrugged. Daniel wondered why today was just not going well for him.

The bell rang eventually, and Daniel was unable to find Sunny, since their classes didn’t seem to connect in any way. Either that or her friend Cori was steering her clear of his presence. Daniel had a bad feeling this was just a rough start to an even worse day. He went to his home room a little cautiously, freezing as he saw the girl who had kissed him talking to the teacher. In the couple seconds before she saw him, he wondered if he could just skip class like his friends sometimes did. But it was too late.

“Baaaaabe! There you are. I got this new lipstick, it smells like peaches!”    
Meanwhile, Sunny walked past into a darker part of the hallway, Trey trailing behind and grinning. But Sunny halted when she noticed the bangly new girl with her big lips and zero personal space. Trey almost ran into Sunny, scoffing. 

Daniel tried to back away, but the girl’s personal space issues made her faster than his nervous and self-conscious shuffle, and she started the queen of all PDAs in the middle of the hallway, all the while Daniel tried to get away, much to the amusement of pretty much everyone else.

Besides Sunny. Trey snickered, noticing her horrified stare at the two, and reached over to mess with her face, but Sunny, fast like lightning, grabbed his hand and twisted him around, locking him into a painful position with his elbow behind his head.    
“oOOooooowowowowowowow-” He hissed quietly. Daniel tried to tilt his head to see what was happening, but the girl was too strong for his gentle attempts, only letting go thirty seconds later when Daniel’s face was thoroughly scented like peaches. Daniel gasped for breath, looking back at the source of the pained hisses.

Then Sunny let go, shoving Trey into the classroom, and coincidentally bowling through the new girl without a bubble, and Daniel. “Oh shi-” Trey collapsed clumsily over a desk. Daniel, his face red from embarrassment, glanced at Trey being shoved into the girl, then at Sunny, his eyes showing he knew what had happened. He ducked into a bathroom, and she could hear the faucet running. Sunny decided to make a get away right then, and speed walked away. 

“Ugh, why is today not going well?” he muttered, washing his face clean of the lipstick.

“Seems like it’s going well to me,” Roger laughed. “Any day with a makeout sounds like a good one to me.” He shot down all of Daniel’s protest, saying he should just go with it if she wanted him so much. Maybe he could have fun with it as well. Daniel looked a little disturbed by this information, getting to his class just before the bell rang.

The next two periods went by fairly slowly, Sunny falling asleep through her first class, then being woken up by Cori later on. Then lunch came. 

Of course, the girl had found Daniel, who was practically hiding in a corner, which had unfortunately trapped him. It was very easy to see and hear what was happening to everyone a few tables away, and those tables were full of people filming and taking pictures, cheering on the girl.

Sunny stared, blood boiling, but her expression was blank. Cori bit her lip. “You’re freaking me out girl. At least  _ look _ mad instead of like a statue. Jeez.” she joked, but quieted with wide eyes when Sunny stood up, starting to weave in between the tables towards Daniel and the new girl. A person called out to the girl,    
“Go Brittany! Get ‘em!”

Daniel’s eyes caught Sunny’s, pleading for help mentally, though he figured she wouldn’t care or wouldn’t notice. The kids in the cafeteria started chanting,    
“Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss,” Apparently wanting them to do more. But as Sunny marched up the aisle, students quieted, staring at her until she reached Daniel and Brittany. You could hear a pin drop.    
“Brittany, was it? I don’t think he’s interested. He’s pushing you away so hard I’m surprised you don’t have bruises.” Sunny snapped, wondering why she was being so brave. This was who she really was, but hiding it for so long made it feel weird. 

Brittany gaped at Sunny, then laughed,    
“Oh please, he loves it. He’s playing hard to get!”

The entire student body watched silently, either in awe, or just sick fascination. This random person who was otherwise  _ invisible _ was intervening with popular kid’s business. Who  _ was _ this girl? 

“Um, no, I really don’t. I’m not… I’m not interested in you, sorry,” Daniel said quietly, trying to get Brittany’s hand out of his shirt while she was distracted.

Sunny’s eyes narrowed, then she grabbed a fist full of Brittany’s sleeve, yanking her away from Daniel, and to the ground. She slid more than five feet back, before starting to screech and whine.    
“THIS BI-”

Daniel climbed to his feet and went over to Sunny. “Thank you, this doesn’t have to go any further, it’s okay. It’s over,” he said, glancing at Brittany. “I’m sorry you had to deal with this, I should have dealt with it myself.”

Sunny just shook her head, turning away and walking back to her table. Students recorded the entire thing. Daniel almost helped Brittany up, but he figured she’d take any acknowledgement as a sign that he secretly did like her, so he ignored her as he went back to his table, wiping the lipstick off of his face. He sat down and tried to ignore the teasing from Trey, Roger, and Luke. “Wow, Sunny seems to be a little jealous,” one of them said. Daniel was too busy ignoring them to think about how true that statement was. He just finished his lunch and went to his Foods class. Cori was quiet as Sunny finished her lunch in silence. The cafeteria went back to its noisiness, and as the next bell rang Sunny and Cori fled before anyone could confront them. Daniel wondered what he was going to do to tell Sunny about Trey and his pictures, but she seemed to avoid him for some reason, and he hadn’t been able to tell her before she had left him in the cafeteria. He started washing his hands after he had put on an apron, getting ready to make some cookies. Maybe he could give Sunny some somehow as thanks. If they weren’t too bad.

The end of the day came much too quickly. Sunny fled from her last class before Cori could say goodbye, making a beeline for the pool. She found Daniel talking to Gerad about some swim meet that was happening soon, and how Daniel wished he had enough time to be on the swim team. Maybe he could watch.

Gerad looked over and saw Sunny, smiling. “Hey, babe, looks like the two of you got a water date,” he said, putting the keys on the counter. “Good for you.” Daniel looked over and paused, opening his mouth to say something before closing it again. Sunny was frozen in the doorway, looking nervous.    
“Actually, I-I think I forgot something I had to do..” Sunny started. 

“Can I help you with it? I want to make up to you for what you did today. And I need to tell you something about Trey from yesterday,” Daniel said quickly, looking nervous.

“I...don’t think...” Sunny was stuck. She had to swim, but not in front of her all time crush and not to mention  _ he was a normal human _ . 

“I just want to say that yesterday, Trey snuck in behind you in the pool and took pictures,” Daniel said. “I got him to get rid of the photos, but he tried to use them, maybe changed them in some way, to convince me that you had a tail for some reason.” He chuckled, showing that he had no idea how true it was. Sunny’s face turned a little pale. But it wasn’t at the creepiness of the situation, it was that Trey had caught an image of her with a tail. And saw her.  _ SHI- _ “I know, it’s terrible, and I want to make up for it. Is there anything I can do to try and make it better?” Daniel asked, hoping she wasn’t going to freak out on him. That happened sometimes when he tried to help, and it hurt. Sometimes physically. 

“Nothing, can I just have the pool to myself today?” Sunny felt stupid on asking that, but the stretchy feeling and dryness of her legs was well worth the discomfort. If she didn’t change at least once every other day, she would start drying up pretty bad. 

“Okay, no problem,” Daniel said, though his voice showed he was a little confused and didn’t really want to not go to the pool. He shouldered his bag and started walking past her. “Have a good day.”

“B-bye.” Sunny stuttered, then disappeared into the main pool area, pulling off her over clothes to reveal her swimsuit. 

Daniel went home, feeling a little disappointed. He had wanted to swim today. Oh well, there was gym tomorrow, so it wasn’t too bad. He wondered why Sunny was acting so strange. He sometimes caught her looking at him, but whenever he was near her, she dashed away as soon as he could. And then there was the incident with Brittany at lunch. He went on his computer, talking to a friend as they competed against each other in a video game. The friend, who didn’t go to the school, just kept laughing whenever he mentioned Sunny, but he wouldn’t say what was so funny. Sunny came back out of the pool that night dripping wet, let her skin change and dry itself, and get dressed again. She went home feeling nervous, jumpy, and embarrassed. Why couldn’t she just talk to him normally? Maybe because he was too close to finding out. About her crush? Or her little mer-problem? Daniel went to bed late that night, trying to figure things out. Hopefully tomorrow would be better, less complicated. Unless he woke up late.

The next day went strangely fast. Trey and Luke were leaving Sunny alone for some reason, and it made her nervous that they were plotting. If Trey had seen her tail, that meant there were too many things that could happen. Hopefully everyone just called him crazy. She saw Daniel rush into the cafeteria as everyone started to go to their classes, looking distressed and a little unkempt. He had woken up fifteen minutes ago, so today was off to a rough start, but he hoped it was going to go better now. He didn’t see Brittany at all, so that was good. He was just eager to go swimming after lunch. Strangely, Sunny didn’t show up in gym class, and Cori had steeled herself in order to  _ not  _ answer anyone’s questions about Sunny. Trey and Luke kept muttering to each other throughout the class, leaving Daniel mostly alone. After class, though, as they left the locker room, they started to talk to him endlessly.

“Hey, I’m thinking of getting some swimming in after school, want to join us?” Trey asked, gesturing to Luke to join in and manipulate Daniel before he started asking questions. Luke smirked, siding next to Daniel a little too close,    
“Yeah, give us some tips.” Daniel was a people pleaser at heart, so this sounded perfectly reasonable to him, and he didn’t suspect a thing.

“So we got some things to do after school, don’t wait for us, just go straight into the pool, warm up.” Daniel nodded.

“Got it, see you there,” Daniel smiled as he split off to go to his final class.

Meanwhile, Cori talked Sunny’s head off about how brave she was the other day, and Sunny was more than relieved when she got to her last class.    
“Goodbye Cori.” Sunny sighed.    
“Byeee!” Cori waved, leaving down the hall with a little skip. 

Sunny watched the clock from the corner of her eye, craving the water, needing the feeling. She felt like her skin was pinching, as if she was wearing a bodysuit that was too tight. Once the bell rang, she rushed to the pool, not knowing that Daniel was moving towards it as well, eager to swim again. He wanted to help his ‘friends’. Sunny tore off her clothes and jumped into the water, her swimsuit melding nicely with her tail, using a couple strong thrusts to propel herself through the water and into the deep end. Daniel stepped into the pool a few minutes later and took his shirt and pants off, having worn the swimsuit after finishing up in gym. He walked up to the edge, glancing down and freezing as he saw Sunny. For a split second, he thought somehow Luke and Trey had gotten a shark in the pool as a prank. Then he noticed the hair. “Sunny!?” he exclaimed, shock in his voice. The sound startled Sunny, who turned and spotted him, tensing, then flailing, trying to swim away in the opposite direction of the pool where Daniel was not. However Trey and Luke emerged from the side she was heading towards, and Luke let out a loud,    
“AHA!”

Daniel looked up at them, confusion and shock on his face. “What? What the heck is going on?” He figured it might have just been one of those mermaid tails you can buy online. But Sunny didn’t come back up to breathe, she just stayed in the middle part of the pool, looking from Daniel back to Trey and Luke. Trey looked victorious.    
“YES! See!? Look at her! I TOLD you!”

Daniel glanced at Sunny, and things clicked together. “She- she’s a mermaid,” he said quietly, accepting it. It explained a lot that he really should have noticed earlier. She swam practically every day, but never in front of people. He sat down on the edge of the pool, legs sitting in the water. He was trying to come over the shock. Trey and Luke moved to the edge of the water. 

“You didn’t believe me, no one did other than Luke,” he said, grabbing a net. “But everyone will see once we grab her.”

Daniel looked up sharply. “No, don’t! Just leave her alone!”

But Trey and Luke jumped into the water, wadding in Sunny’s direction. She however, was not going to just let them catch her in a net, and took off underwater for one of the far sides of the pool, away from all of them. She reached up to the edge and lifted herself onto the pool deck, rolling over and praying her legs would form quickly. They didn’t, but it was enough for her to stand, some scales still leftover on her legs and collarbone area. She coughed up some water, taking steps towards the girl’s locker room. Trey and Luke clambered up and started towards the locker room, trying to cut her off. Daniel got up and started after Sunny, hoping to stop them from grabbing her. “Run!” he shouted. 

However, when Sunny reached Trey and Luke, mind you; she’s speed walking, not running. The net dropped over empty space as Sunny dodged to the side and shoved the two boys as hard as she could into the pool. Trey screeched like a girl before falling into the water, along with Luke, who just yelped. Daniel relaxed slightly, coming to a stop. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly as he tried to think of what he was going to do. 

Sunny just disappeared into the locker room with her clothes, leaving nothing for Daniel to figure out until later. Trey and Luke scrambled out of the pool cursing and swearing, looking thoroughly humiliated. Daniel left the pool, glaring at the empty station. He went into the boy’s locker room and quickly left, not wanting to see or hear from Trey and Luke again. He went home and just sat in bed. Sunny hated him now, this was all his fault after all. Why did he have to screw up this badly?

“Dad.”   
“Yeah?”   
“Three boys at my school now know about my mermaid powers.”

The clang of a wrench, “WHAT!?”

Daniel didn’t eat anything that night. He didn’t deserve it. He had let Sunny down. Any chances of her returning his crush was basically zero now. He finally confronted his feelings, and realized that they both liked each other. That explained a lot of things. But things were ruined now. He got a call from Trey, but didn’t answer it, something he never did.

The next morning, Cori was at Sunny’s side as they entered the building, Cori looking a bit tense and almost excited.    
“He knows? Your crush knows!?”   
“Yeah, but so do Luke and Trey.” Sunny sighed, and Cori pouted.    
“But Sunny, this is the perfect-”

“No! No it isn’t. I have no chance with him anyway, and now he knows I’m a  _ monster _ !”

“...” Cori went quiet, looking contemplative and worried as they sat down at a table. 

Daniel had gotten to school early, and was sitting at his table, head in his arms as he tried to get some sleep. Maybe if he just slept through the day, he wouldn’t have to interact with anyone. Especially Luke, Trey, or Sunny. He was in clear view of Cori and Sunny, looking like he was passed out or asleep. His earbuds kept him from hearing her exclamation. Cori glanced at him, then looked back at Sunny with an evil grin.    
“Cori. Cori no- CORI!” Sunny whisper yelled, but it wouldn’t stop her friend. Cori crept over to Daniel, and waited a few seconds before tasering him in the sides. 

“ACK!” Daniel exclaimed as he shot up, glancing at Cori and flinching away, knowing she was Sunny’s friend. “I’m sorry, I know I screwed up,” he said quickly. “I know I don’t have a chance with her, especially now.” Crud, he was saying too much.

Cori pouted, crossing her arms. “Oh come on. Why are you such a mopy face? Sunny is the same! SUNNY! Hey!” Sunny stared at them, looking startled, then looked away with a little bit of flushing on her face. “Don’t ignore me!” Daniel chuckled a little, looking away as well. 

“Yes, I figured out she used to have a crush on me. But those don’t usually turn into relationships, especially when I’ve screwed up so much. I didn’t help her, I didn’t suspect a thing-”

He was interrupted by Cori sitting down across from him with a focused look on her face.    
“Tell me how you figured it out. Sunny never really explained to me how you saw her tail and stuff. I just know Trey and Luke were involved.” 

Daniel blinked, hesitating. “You know as well?” he asked. “Of course you do, you’re Sunny’s best friend. Trey and Luke tricked me into coming to the pool when Sunny was there. I saw her, they tried to catch her, and she escaped.” 

Cori burst out laughing,    
“HAHAHAHA! No one can  _ CATCH  _ Sunny! She’s not a dumb fish, and not a weak one either. I’m surprised she’s got this far with letting them bully her so much- honestly.”

Meanwhile, Sunny sank deeper into her sweater, burying her face. She was not ready for this. 

Daniel chuckled a little. “Yeah, she chucked them into the pool like it was nothing. I would hate for her to be angry at me.” He frowned a little. “Is she angry or upset with me?” he asked nervously. Cori scoffed,    
“Sunny can’t be angry at you. She’s just scared. She  _ lov-” _ Sunny was suddenly there, and grabbed Cori’s back shirt collar lightly, dragging her away.    
“That’s enough.”

Daniel almost jumped in surprise as she appeared, laughing a little. Okay, so he was okay. Their feelings were mutual. She didn’t hate him. He flushed a bit, bumping his head into the table. He was so dumb for not realizing earlier. Cori continued to whine all the way to first hour, but Sunny was having none of it. It didn’t help how much Sunny was blushing the entire time.    
“I can’t believe you would just confront him like that.” She sighed. Cori stuck her tongue out, 

“You both need a boost to get together-”

“Woah when did that enter your head!?”   
“A year ago.”

“Wat?”

Daniel spent most of homeroom working out how he was going to ask Sunny out. With cookies? No, he didn’t know if she was allergic to anything in cookies or didn’t like them. He went through a ton of options before finally setting on the classic “Will you go out with me?”. But he still had to figure out when he was going to do that. He doubted Sunny would want to be anywhere near him, since she became a blushing mess whenever he was around. Cori meanwhile was plotting. She wondered if she should get them both to go to the pool together. Just hang out for a while, not go crazy with anything, just have them get to know each other. But of course that could make things worse. And it couldn’t be after school today, since he had practice on Thursdays.

The bell rang, and Daniel packed up his stuff, glancing around as he went to his next class, keeping an eye out for Sunny. However she was nowhere to be seen. Cori then ran up to Daniel, gasping for air.    
“Dude, Sunny is gone! She went home! There were these scales forming on her arms, legs, and on her face, it was crazy!”

Daniel stiffened. “What? Is she okay?” he asked as he tried to think of what to do. He couldn’t just skip class, could he? He’d get in trouble, but he was doing decent in his classes. “Okay, are you willing to skip your classes to go check on her with me?” he asked. 

“Hell yeah. This has never happened before.” Cori pumped a fist. Daniel started running over to the parking lot, slowing down when he looked back and saw Cori struggling to keep up.

“Sorry, just really worried,” he said, letting her catch up as they went into his cheap red car that was at least 5 years old. It started up. “Okay, what’re the directions to her place?” he asked.

“Yeah I got it on my phone,” Cori brought it up on her Iphone. 

~ Time skippity ~

Daniel pulled up in front of Sunny’s house, barely turning the car off before he leaped out and went to the door, knocking on it. “Sunny! You okay!?” A startled shout came from inside, then the door opened to reveal the basics of a frazzled father figure.    
“Who are you!?”

Daniel felt a bit of panic at this obstacle. “I’m Daniel, I’m…” he hesitated a bit, wondering if they were friends or whatever. “Concerned for Sunny. I know about the mermaid thing, and Cori’s seen scales growing on her like crazy.” He gestured to Cori. Sunny’s dad stared at him for a second before sighing, gesturing for them to come in.    
“She’s stuck in between mer, and human right now. She’s on the couch. I’m not sure what to do, because her mom is the mermaid blood in the family.”

Daniel paused to think. “Okay, so I think the best thing would be to get her fully into mermaid form,” he said. “I have a pool in my backyard, and no one’s home right now. It’s only a few blocks away. Would that be okay?” he asked. Sunny’s dad made a worried face, then looked over at Sunny, whose tail was flopped over the armrest, since it was too long. The sounds of her wheezing could be heard.    
“I suppose, but take Cori with you. I want updates.”

Cori smiled, giving a weak thumbs up. Daniel nodded, pushing past him and picking up Sunny, carrying her to his car at a jog. “You’re going to be okay,” he murmured as he put her in the car, putting a sheet on top of her to try and stop her from drying out. He quickly drove to his house, reaching it in five minutes, opening up the fence and running with Sunny, pushing her into the pool. He climbed up onto the deck to watch, chewing on his finger.

Cori dropped into the water with Sunny, making sure she didn’t start choking or something. But thankfully, Sunny took a couple breaths of water, and opened her eyes, righting herself and giving Cori a confused look. She seemed disoriented. “Wait, where am I?” She asked, water falling from her lips as she surfaced a little. Then she looked over at Daniel and jolted a tiny bit before trying to relax. She wasn’t used to having anyone see her like that. Daniel let out a little sigh, sitting at the edge of the pool. “My pool, since it seemed like you needed water and… yeah.” He shut himself up. Now that he got a good look at her in her mermaid form, his brain had short-circuited, and he was starting to turn into a blushing mess. He looked away, finding a brown wall very interesting. Cori chuckled evilly,    
“OOooOOh he likes your for-”

“SHhhhh, be quiet. No he doesn’t.” Of course, Sunny was in denial, and went back under the water, swimming to the deeper end. 

“I do like you,” Daniel mumbled, sure that Sunny couldn’t hear him. He climbed to his feet. “Does anyone want something to eat?” he asked. Cori perked up,    
“I am!” but Sunny was busy swimming in a wide circle, looking a bit spaced out. There may have been something wrong, but it was hard to tell. Daniel went to the edge of the pool.

“You okay?” he asked her, concern in his voice.

Cori wadded over to them, and reached over to poke Sunny’s tail. This was a mistake. 

Sunny reared around, letting out a water muffled hiss, then blinked. Cori had jolted back, looking startled and a little afraid. Daniel jolted as well. “Sunny?” he asked, a bit of fear in his voice. “Something wrong?” But she didn’t answer him, watching Cori closely. Cori swallowed thickly, knowing that there was definitely something wrong.    
“Heeeey Sunnyyyy, lets not attack our friends,” she said weakly, backing up in the water. But it was so slow, she knew if Sunny did attack, she would have no chance against a mermaid. Daniel grabbed Cori and pulled her out of the water with a startled yelp. 

“Sunny? What the heck is going on?” he asked, moving so he was at the edge of the pool farthest from Sunny. She curled around and paced the waters, watching Cori and Daniel’s silhouettes from under the surface. Cori let out a shaky sigh,    
“Text her dad. If her powers were acting up today, this might be part of it.”

“You’re her friend, you probably have his number, he didn’t give it to me,” Daniel said, trying to breathe slowly to keep himself calm. Getting upset would not help the situation. Cori nodded a little, and brought out her phone, flinching when Sunny’s tail splashed above the water surface momentarily. 

“He doesn’t know. He says to stay out of the water.”

“Got it,” Daniel said. “So, would you like some Mac & Cheese?” he asked. “I’ll make some while you watch Sunny.”

“Uh, yeah, that sounds great.” Cori laughed weakly, sitting at the edge of the pool and staring down at Sunny worriedly. Daniel went inside and started making the mac n cheese, glancing out the window at Cori and Sunny once in a while to see if there were any changes. He came back out about 15 minutes later with two bowls, handing one to Cori.

Cori took the bowl gratefully, then looked back at Sunny, who had been swimming circles around the pool continuously. As if she was looking for another way to swim away. Daniel jumped as his phone rang, picking it up. “Hi, Mom,” he said quietly. He listened to a firm voice, nodding a little. “Yes, I skipped class. Yes, I’m sorry. I’m helping a friend with some problems they’re having, no need to worry. Yes, I’ll make up all the assignments I missed, no you don’t need to come pick me up, I’m okay. Bye, love you,” he said before putting away his phone. “Oh boy, she’s pissed,” he muttered as he started eating his own food. Cori winced,    
“Sorry. Now we have a couple problems.”

“You mean other than Sunny going feral and my mom being pissed at me?” Daniel asked as he sat down. “And missing school so our teachers are going to be upset, rumors are going to fly, et cetera.”

“I don’t care about rumors, I just hope Sunny doesn’t...hurt us accidentally. I know if she was actually in her right mind, she would be horrified.” Cori ate some of the food. 

“Yeah, from how strong she is, I figure if she manages to reach us, we’re more than just hurt. I’d recommend not sitting at the edge of the pool, just in case.” Cori gave him a strained look, then shuffled away from the edge. Sunny watched them as they moved, fins perked up. Daniel waved to her. “Hope you enjoy your little pool now,” he said. 

Of course, Sunny didn’t reply to him, turning to sniff or whatever she was doing swimming aimlessly around for escape spots. Cori sighed,    
“What if she stays like that? What even triggered it!?” Daniel frowned, looking up today to see if anything out of the ordinary was happening. 

“Huh, it’s a supermoon tonight. That might have something to do with it,” he said. Cori’s eyes widened,    
“Oh! The moon has to do with tides and stuff, so that’s a good guess.”

“Mermaids are like waves, cool, pretty, scary, and affected by the tides,” Daniel joked. Cori choked, laughing. “It wasn’t that funny, shush,” he protested, poking her with his elbow. “I swear, your sense of humor is worse than mine.”    
“Hey, Sunny got me into horrible humor!” Cori whined, sticking her tongue out. Daniel rolled his eyes.

“Great, blaming other people for your personal problems,” he said, digging into his food and eating it up quickly. He glanced at Cori. “You done? I can take your bowl away and wash the dishes.”

Cori nodded, handing over her bowl. Then she looked over at Sunny, who was at the farthest edge of the pool.    
“I wanna get closer to her. Maybe I can snap her out of it.”

“That is a terrible idea. The effect is probably going to get stronger as night comes, so please don’t do it. You’re just going to get killed,” Daniel protested. Cori pouted,    
“But it’s Sunny! I have to do  _ something _ .” 

“You can keep safe, so when she comes to, the first thing she sees  _ isn’t _ bloody water and your body,” Daniel said, moving an arm in between her and the pool. “I know it sucks, but it’s the best we can do. Sometimes you just have to wait out your problems.” Cori didn’t like that, but she sighed and moved away from the pool, nodding absently. Time was starting to go by. Daniel finished washing the dishes and parked his car so that it wouldn’t be suspicious. He glanced over at Cori about an hour after school would be over. “So my mom’s probably going to be home soon, do you need a ride? I don’t think you should be here when that happens. I can hide Sunny somewhat, I’m the only person who really uses the pool.” 

Cori let out a groan, but relented. “Okay, let me just text Sunny’s dad about it, and I can go. Please watch over Sunny.” Cori gave Daniel a purely desperate look, “She loves you, even though she has a hard time putting herself out there romantically. Maybe if she doesn’t bite your hand off you can be a couple.” Cori joked weakly. 

Daniel rolled his eyes. “What do you think this is, one of those paranormal romances where love fixes everything?” he asked jokingly. Cori just shook her head, shrugging. “I will watch her, don’t worry. Do you need a ride?” He turned to see what Sunny was doing. She was being awfully quiet. Suspiciously so.

A small chipmunk had run onto the pool deck, and was near the edge. Sunny had her face half emerged from the water, watching silently, eyes narrowed. Stalking. “Oh no,” Danny groaned. “If you eat that chipmunk, you’re going to be horrified once you change back. And that’s gonna be quite the bump in our relationship.” He grabbed a stick and waved it at the chipmunk, scaring it away from the edge. Sunny hissed at him, then disappeared into the water. “It’s for your own good,” Daniel said defensively. Of course, feral Sunny didn’t care about that, and paced near the edge, as if waiting for a chance to leap at Daniel or for him to enter the water. Cori cleared her throat,    
“Anyway, I have to get home. I don’t want to leave, but..” she trailed off. 

“Your parents are probably worrying about you, it’ll be okay. I’m not going to cannonball into the water, and I’ll make sure she doesn’t tear apart any small animals.” Cori gave him a reluctant smile, then gestured to his car,    
“Mind giving me a ride? Sorry.”

Daniel nodded. “No problem. My mom’ll be even more pissed if she finds we have uninvited guests.” He climbed into the car with Cori and drove her to her house, barely making it back home before his mom. He rushed to the backyard to check on Sunny and see if anything had gone wrong. 

Nothing had happened, Sunny was still pacing the pool, and narrowed her eyes at Daniel as if he was going to attack her. She was skittish, animalistic, and probably ten times more dangerous with uncontrollable she was by now. It was a hard addition to their already fragile ‘getting to know each other’ situation. He sat down at the edge of the pool, stiffening as the door opened.

“Daniel? Come here right now and explain what happened,” his mom’s voice came through the house. He glanced at Sunny as if wondering whether or not getting torn to pieces by a mermaid was better than being yelled at. He finally sighed and went inside. Sunny could hear the shouting from outside from his mom, Daniel’s voice barely audible. But she just kept low in the water, hissing a little. Daniel came back out about half an hour later. 

“Well, that was fun,” he muttered, sitting down just outside of Sunny’s reach. “So I’m grounded and can’t do anything other than track and field outside of school.” He felt like he needed to tell someone, even if that someone was a feral mermaid who would tear him to pieces if he so much as moved just inside her reach. She curled around and watched him, those pupils that were normally soft and intelligent, now narrowed and cold. “Oh well, if you don’t kill me, it’ll be worth it,” he smiled at her. He took a slice of cold cut he had grabbed from the fridge and chucked it into the water. She bolted for it in a flurry of bubbles, ripping at it with strangely sharp teeth. She swam to a corner away from him to eat the rest. “Glad I saved that chipmunk,” he muttered, watching her. Over time, the sky darkened, and the moon rose up over the horizon, larger than normal. 

Eventually, Daniel was called inside, unable to continuously watch Sunny from the pool deck. As it got later and later, Sunny became more restless, more jerky in her movements. In the now dark water, Daniel could see out his window the back fins as she surfaced here and there. He shuddered, hoping she got better once the sun had risen as he went to sleep, waking up early and immediately going out to the pool. But she was gone. A wet splatter of plenty of water was leading to the front of his house, and then the trail ended. She must have dried off quickly, somehow. Daniel chewed on his lip as he looked up and down the street, not seeing her. He hoped she was okay, and that he would see her at school. He went into his house and started getting ready, going to school fairly early. Cori was waiting for him in the airlock, looking worried.    
“So? Where is she? Is she still..?” She trailed off. 

“I think she’s better, but she left before I woke up. I don’t know where she is or if she’s okay,” Daniel said, looking equally worried.   
“WHAT!?” Cori almost screeched Daniel’s head off. “Where do you think she went? Home? We have to find her!”

“Can you call her dad’s number? I’m grounded, so I couldn’t go anywhere other than to school to look for her,” Daniel said quietly, wincing at her loud voice.

“W-well, uhhhh, hmm. Maybe my mom can drive us. She knows about the merpeople and the mercouncil.” Cori seemed to know a lot more than Daniel did. 

“Or we could call her dad? What’s wrong with that? Let’s do that first,” Daniel suggested, wondering why she was so opposed to it. “If she’s home, or her dad’s seen her, we’ll know right away instead of having to look for her.”

“If I know anything, Sunny’s dad just freaks out. Sunny always complained on how he makes the situation worse, so, I dunno.” Cori looked a bit frazzled, unsure, and beyond concerned for Sunny.    
“Wait! What about the lake!?” Cori snapped her fingers, eyes lighting up. “Talismon Lake is super close by, if she went all feral, would that draw her to bigger sources of water? She was pacing the pool, remember? Trying to find something.”

“Okay,” Daniel said, a little nervously. He felt like he was going to get into a  _ lot _ of trouble for this. He went outside with Cori, getting into his car with her. “If my mom kills me for this, I’m going to be a little annoyed with you and Sunny,” he said as he started driving for the lake, knowing they’d miss at least homeroom and first hour, if not more. Cori gave Daniel an irritated look,    
“Yeah? Then stay at school. I’ll deal with it.”

Daniel winced. “Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry.” He drove to the parking lot close to the lake, climbing out and looking at the sand for footprints that looked like Sunny’s, or something looking fishy. There were indeed footprints, but they led into the more rough and wild part of the lake. There were cliffs and sheer dark rocks everywhere, the spot where Daniel parked having been at the lower part, thankfully. However, they had to look harder with all the obstruction. Daniel walked at the edge of the lake, looking at the water nervously. “Sunny!?” he called out over the lake. No answer. Cori walked by Daniel, then noticed how the messy footprints led into the water, but came back out a few times. It was confusing.    
“Did she have a hard time or something? Wait look!” Cori pointed at a spot in the sand underneath one of the larger rock outcroppings, where a scuffle of some sort must have happened. The sand was all messed up. Daniel went next to the sand, checking it out. “Huh, what the heck happened?” he muttered, looking around for any signs on what else had happened, and where the scuffle had gone afterwards. It seemed like the footprints stopped at another part of the spiky tall rocks, and grains of sand and recently wetted parts of the rock could be seen. Cori squinted,    
“Did someone climb the rocks? Or did they...I don’t even know.” She sighed. Daniel went up the rocks to see if something was up there. He was wondering if there had been a fight between Sunny and another merperson. Maybe because the supermoon had made them both somewhat feral. When he neared the top of the cliff, he could hear far off screeching. He quickly scrambled up and ran over to the screeching. “Stop!” he called as he closed the distance, quickly making it to the source.

What he saw was nothing short of horrifying. A larger merwoman was rolling in the stray grainy and sandy grass, sending bits of blood flying as they clawed at each other. Sunny looked rough, a deep gauge going through her cheek and cutting into her lip, bleeding to her face as she snarled, tail sending dirt into the air, scratching and biting. Like two feral cats. Daniel rushed over to them, trying to figure out what to do. He realized if he got in the way, he’d achieve nothing more than being torn to shreds. But maybe if he distracted them… He tore off his shirt and flung it on top of the merwoman, then shoving her away with his foot as she was distracted, then caught Sunny in an armlock, using a lot more force than he would have liked to keep her from attacking him. Yet she just let out a shriek of rage, biting down on his arm painfully, claws dragging on his skin over and over to get away and tear the other merwoman apart. The other merperson was hissing and spitting, ripping the piece of cloth off and locking onto Daniel and Sunny. Cori was just starting to come up onto the top area of the cliff, and froze, both gaping. Daniel adjusted his grip on Sunny, forcing her face-first into the dirt and laying on top of her, pinning her arms in between her back. He hoped his arm wasn’t going to become infected by the bite as he pinned her down. “Can you distract the merwoman?” he asked Cori, pain evident in his voice as it became a hiss from exertion. Cori nodded frantically, standing up and skipping over to the merwoman, who hissed so violently it sounded more like a roar. Cori waved her arms, moving in a semicircle,    
“Hey! Look at me!” Daniel rolled his eyes, not able to do much else since Sunny was scratching at his sides slightly in an attempt to escape. 

“Please,” he hissed to Sunny. “Stop. I love you, and I don’t want you to be hurt. Or hurt me. More.” 

Sunny snarled, those slitted pupils locking onto Daniel. It was quite a sight, since Daniel had only seen her calmly furious, or just dismissive. But now, the bridge of her nose was wrinkled up as she bared her teeth, eyes narrowed and hair sopping wet, messed up and bleeding from multiple wounds. Daniel flinched away slightly, accidentally giving Sunny room to move. He only realized this a split second too late. Her tail swept in a wide circle, and Daniel was flown backwards by the powerful shove, and his ankle just touched the edge of the cliff before everything started to tip. Cori’s horrified expression was all he saw before everything became a panicked blur. He screamed as he plunged downwards, hitting the water  _ hard _ . His breath was knocked out of him, and he began sinking, taking a few seconds to comprehend what was all happening. It was like a switch had been flipped, Sunny’s eyes going from a narrowed crazed gaze to a pale and wide eyed panic. She gulped in air and let her legs form partly, bolting for the edge. Cori looked back at the merwoman, who was turning back and looking confused and strangely startled. Then to Cori’s confusion, both the merwoman and Sunny dove straight off the cliff after Daniel. He lost what little was left of his air when he saw them dive into the water after him, thinking they were both still feral, pushing himself deeper into the water as his lungs tried to get him to inhale water.

Except the look on Sunny’s face when she got close enough told Daniel that he was going to be okay. If they were fast enough. The merwoman grabbed Daniel’s arms, and Sunny braced her hands on his back, both of the mers thrusting him up to the surface gently. When he broke the water and found air, the merwoman let go, and Sunny backed off, giving him space. Cori climbed down from the cliff, running over to the waterfront, wheezing and puffing out air. She looked a bit tired and strained. Daniel gasped for a few moments, looking at Sunny. The water around him and the merwoman and Sunny started becoming a tinted red. Daniel then swam over to Sunny and wrapped his arms around her tightly. “Are you okay?” he asked. Sunny sputtered, “Are  _ you  _ okay!?” She blinked at him, tail brushing against his legs, and she jolted away a little. Cori cheered weakly,    
“Yeeeah! You did it!” Then flopped into the sand with a puff. 

The merwoman behind Sunny looked terribly guilty, feeling a scratch on her own face.    
“I am so sorry about this...if I had anything to lock myself in I would have. I never checked the calendar for the supermoon.”

“I’m okay, as long as my bite doesn’t get infected, sure. I once tripped into a thornbush on a hike, this is nothing,” Daniel said dismissively. Sunny gave him a doubtful look, then separated from him a bit more, looking to the merwoman.    
“No hard feelings?” Sunny asked hopefully. The woman nodded,    
“No hard feelings.”

Daniel swam to shore, climbing out of the water. Then he shivered, remembering he had taken off his shirt, and he was soaked. No way was he going to school like this. “Welp, gonna get grounded even more,” he muttered with a sigh. “Oh well.”

“No. I have to do something for messing up your guys' lives like this. I have to do a lot.” Sunny looked determined, swimming up to the shallower part of the water, crawling out and letting her legs form again. She was actually quite shaky as she tried to stand, and Cori sat up from her flop into the sand, holding her steady. 

“Woah there, what do you think you’re doing??” Cori snipped, “You’re bleeding like crazy, and you can barely stand!”

“Okay, I think what we should do is go to the hospital, or go to someone’s house and bandage ourselves up. You’re not going to do anything until you’re healed up,” Daniel insisted. Sunny started to protest,    
“But-” Cori reached over and poked the fairly deep gash in her cheek, and Sunny hissed in pain, jolting away.    
“Yeah, no.”

Daniel pulled out his phone, which he was glad was waterproof. “So are we going to someone’s house, or does your dad have good health insurance? Because I don’t want to send him into debt because of this.” Sunny shook her head,    
“I can just go home. He has bandages. He’s probably worried sick.” She looked so guilty, knowing the entire situation was quite burdening. 

“Okay, let’s go in my car, since walking all the way back would be a bad idea,” Daniel said as he started moving towards the parking lot.

Sunny opened her mouth to protest, feeling like dirt, but Cori forced her in the car’s direction by threatening to poke the gash on her cheek, and Sunny was instantly eager to get in the car so Cori wouldn’t make the pain worse. Cori always knew how to get Sunny to do something good for herself. 

“Buckle up,” Daniel muttered as he buckled himself in. “First stop, Sunny’s house.” He glanced over to make sure they had buckled in, before driving over to her place, parking in the driveway. “Please get better soon, I love you,” he said before he even realized what he was saying. Then he froze. Cori looked over at Sunny with a big grin, like saying,  _ I told you so _ . Sunny just looked at Daniel with a gaze of confusion. Then she slowly unbuckled, and left the car, closing the door gently, the entire time looking at Daniel as if he was insane. Cori called to Sunny, but the mergirl turned her back, walking into her house. She left a couple droplets of blood on the pavement. 

“Why did I say that?” Daniel muttered as he pulled out to drop off Cori. “That was so dumb.” He drove to Cori’s house. “Have a good day, see you if my mom doesn’t kill me.” Cori gave Daniel a look,    
“Sunny isn’t in her right mind yet. She was confused. Just don’t assume anything okay? Byeee!” Cori waved, and left the car, jogging into her house. 

“SUNNY oh my oh my,” Sunny’s dad fretted over her as soon as she walked in the door, digging out the bandages and supplies from the cabinets. “I should have just locked you in the house if I had known.”

“Dad, I would have torn you to shreds.” Sunny sighed, flinching as the ointment was rubbed on her cheek. 

Daniel got home, and his mother screamed when she saw him. “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU!?” she exclaimed.

“I was beaten up right before school, so I left,” Daniel said. It wasn’t  _ technically _ wrong.

“Who beat you up? You look like you got attacked by a raccoon, and then fell into a thorn bush,” his mom asked as she called the ambulance.

“I didn’t see them, I was covering my face with my hands.” It felt wrong lying to his mom, even though he knew it was for the best. He was taken to the hospital for the bite, and the doctors treated his wounds before sending him home. His mom made sure he stayed home for the whole day, calling school so he was excused.

Sunny on the other hand was stuck at home until her wounds mostly healed, and her father wasn’t taking any chances for another few days. 

Daniel went to school the next day, hoping things would be normal. He missed Sunny, but maybe he’d be able to go see her tomorrow, on Saturday.

Cori stuck by Daniel a little bit, directing him away from Brittany once or twice and saying,    
“When Sunny comes back she can fight off the bich, but until then I’m here in her place.”

Daniel laughed a little bit, scratching at the bandage on his arm. “Yeah, hopefully she’s okay and doesn’t distance herself from us. I’m gonna see if I can go over to her house tomorrow, I’ll bring you along if I can.”

“Yesss!” Cori cheered, pumping her fist. “I bet she’s healing up great. Speaking of healing, is your bite okay?”

“It’s fine,” Daniel shrugged. “Not infected. It’ll be healed within the next week. But I can’t promise that my mom will let me go, since I skipped on Wednesday and missed a ton of stuff.” Cori shook her head. 

“Don’t worry about it. You and Sunny have  _ got  _ to fix things with each other.”

“Yeah, she probably feels terrible for what she did, even though it’s not really her fault,” Daniel said as they started to their next class.

“That’s Sunny for ya.”

Daniel shook his head as he split up from her to go to his own class. They went through the rest of their day fairly uneventfully, and Daniel managed to get his mom to let him drive to Sunny’s house, picking up Cori on the way.

He drove up Sunny’s driveway and climbed out of the car, glancing at Cori. “Do you think mermaids have magic healing powers?” he asked. Cori snorted,    
“Of course they do, but it’s not like the books. It still takes  _ some  _ time. Just faster.”

“I don’t know anything about mermaids, just asking,” Daniel said as he walked up to the door and knocked on it. Cori was behind him, and squealed when Sunny opened the door. Cori tackled Sunny, and the mergirl let out a yelp, falling to the floor. Daniel laughed a little. “You look a lot better now,” he said as he entered the house, glancing around. Her dad glanced at him from under the sink, and waved. Sunny got up slowly and groaned.    
“Well, I didn’t think I would be attacked by my friend.” she joked. 

“True, and it’s nice that you haven’t run away from me yet. That’s a good change,” Daniel chuckled. “Or do you want to keep that whole thing from the first half of the week going? Cori’s been struggling to do your job of keeping Brittany away.” Sunny blushed in embarrassment, then looked guilty again.    
“I’m sorry.”

Daniel frowned, moving towards her. “Shush, it’s a thing of the past, you couldn’t control yourself. It’s not your fault.” He moved his arms behind his back so Sunny couldn’t see the bandages wrapped around his arm. Of course, that drew her attention, and her eyes turned pained before it was gone.    
“Thanks.” Sunny stood up fully, dusting herself off. Cori chuckled, then wandered into her kitchen,    
“Ya’ll got food?” Daniel laughed, shaking his head.

“C’mon, it’s like an hour before you can even start thinking about lunch,” he protested, rolling his eyes and smiling at Sunny.

“Noooo” Cori whined back, rummaging through Sunny’s fridge. Sunny just shrugged. 

“Anyways, Sunny, how have you been so far? I see your scratches have mostly healed,” Daniel asked. Sunny’s shirt covered where the gash on her chest had been, and he was curious about it, hoping it was mostly gone.

Sunny just shook her head, “I’m just fine.” But that didn’t answer his question. Cori came out with a pizza box, and a slice in her mouth.    
“Want one?” She asked, muffled. 

Sunny snorted, gladly taking the distraction, and took a slice for herself. 

“One pizza? Not sure if it’ll be enough, but thanks,” Daniel said, grabbing the box and pulling it out of Cori’s hands and moving to the door as if he were just going to leave with it. Cori made a squealing sound of protest, however Sunny made no move to stop him, since she knew he was mostly joking. Daniel took a slice from the box and returned, offering the box back to Cori. “How many slices are you going to eat?” he asked Cori. She chuckled,    
“As much as I can.”

Sunny just left them, going over to her dad.    
“You should take a break. Just call a guy to fix it so we can have our sink back”

“Nooo, I think I got it this time.”

“Dad.”

“Excuse me sir, what’s the problem with the sink?” Daniel asked, leaving Cori to her rapidly emptying pizza box. He knelt down and peered under it. Sunny’s father looked over at him,    
“Well, it at first seemed to be clogged, but now that I opened it up, it wasn’t, and I can’t put anything back the way it was cause I don’t remember how they fit.” 

Sunny rolled her eyes. Daniel moved and gently pushed her dad out of the way. “My sink’s kinda like this, so I think I know how to set it back up.” He grabbed a wrench and the pipes that were taken out, quickly putting them back into place and examining them. “That should be right, but not entirely sure.” He stood up and turned on the sink. The water ran through smoothly and normally. “Yup, there we go.” Sunny’s dad gaped, then chucked.    
“I should have you around more often.” Sunny sputtered. Daniel smiled at Sunny, flushing a little.

“Well, thank you sir. It’s no big deal, just a quick fix.” He stood up and moved slightly towards Sunny.

Her father smiled cheekily, jabbing an elbow at Sunny, who sent him an intense look. He got up and went to the stairs. “I’ll be in my office.” 

Daniel waited a minute after he left before looking back at Sunny. “So, what’s going to happen between us?” he asked quietly, nervously. “You know from when I dropped you off how I feel, but…” he trailed off, trying to get his growing blushing to stop and go back down. Sunny was having the same problem, and used a hand to cover her face and look away.    
“I feel the same.” she mumbled. This did not make Daniel’s blush better. If his face were any redder, it’d probably be mistaken for a tomato. Daniel tried to say something, but failed the first couple times.

“D- do you want to… go somewhere for lunch?” he asked. “Since I’m sure Cori will eat everything here before we get a chance.”

“We could just order more pizzas.” Sunny offered, “On me.”

“Oh, yeah that makes sense,” Daniel muttered. “So… should we consider ourselves dating now?” he asked.

_ Woah, slow your roll there pal.  _ Sunny gave him a weak smile,    
“How about we get to know each other a little more first?”

“Bleh, right. I’m just… a mess, sorry,” Daniel chuckled. He sat down on the floor. “So how was your day today?” he asked. She automatically sat down on the floor as well.    
“It was boring, but my dad refused to let me go to school.”

“We noticed, Cori was worried sick about you,” Daniel said, knowing that Cori would probably hear her name. If eating all that pizza didn’t clog her ears.

Cori looked over, face full of pizza. “Hm?”

Daniel glanced over at her. “Weren’t you worried sick about Sunny, and practically shouted my face off when I said I might drive you to Sunny’s?”

Cori huffed, 

“Food.” as if that was the answer to everything. Which it kind of was. Sunny nodded. Daniel, on the other hand, was not as used to Cori’s quirks, so his expression turned confused, and opened his mouth to question what she had said, before closing it.

“Okay,” he said a little doubtfully. “So, how long have you two known each other?” he asked. Cori snorted,    
“Two years. Not much, but I must say the time I discovered Sunny’s tail was the  _ best  _ memory.” Sunny groaned, covering her face.    
“Not this again.” Daniel, on the other hand, chuckled, sitting raptly at attention, waiting for her to continue.

“So, we were having a sleepover, and somehow Sunny hadn’t been in the water for two days, and we were watching a movie, and she said she had to take a bath, but I wanted to prank her, so I got a glass of freezing cold water in a cup and walked in on her in the bath-”

Sunny blurted,    
“Okay that’s enough-” she was blushing. 


End file.
